All Episodes

August 5, 2025 • 14 mins

In today's episode, Eva Longoria previews her FX sports-docu series "Necaxa," and she discusses Hyphenate Media Group content venture with business partner Cris Abrego. Joe Otterson, Variety's TV news editor, weighs in on the return of Hank and Peggy Hill et al as Hulu revives "King of the Hill" for a new era in America.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Tuesday, August fit, twenty
twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am co
editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuta. I'm in
La He's in New York, and Variety has reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,

(00:29):
we have a special guest. Eva Longoria joins us to
talk about her new FX docuseries Nakosa, and she talks
about her two year old content venture, Hyphenate Media Group.
And then we'll hear from Variety TV news editor Joe
Otterson about the return of King of the Hill. But
before we get to that, here are a few headlines

(00:49):
just in this morning that you need to know. Say
hello to Howdy Roku has unveiled plans to launch a
low cost, ad free streamer dubbed Howdy Bilchi March two,
ninety nine a month. Meanwhile, Fox has set August twenty
first as the launch date for its Fox One streaming
service that will incorporate Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports

(01:11):
All for nineteen ninety nine a month. Add Giant WPP
and Nielson have set a long term audience measurement packed.
This is another sign of tensions easing between Nielsen and
its biggest constituencies in advertising and television. And Out today
is Variety's review of FX's Alien Earth in a Nutshell.

(01:32):
We like it, our critic Alison Herman weighs in. Now
we turn to a conversation with Eva Longoria about her
new sports docuseries Nakaksa, which bows Thursday on FX. Eva
is one of the industry's busiest multi hyphenates. We talk
about her move to invest in sports, how she fell

(01:54):
in love with a soccer club in need of a
little TLC, and we talk about how she's building hyphenate
media group with her business partner Chris Sbrago. But first
I'll let Eva set the scene for Nakoxa with a
clip from the show's trailer. My commitment to Nakatsa. It's
about culture.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
I want to show the beauty of the Mexican people.
That wasn't what the house. This idea that one day
you can be an underdog and the next day you're
building a football empirement. And now Robin Rymin are here
for the Funne.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
How did the opportunity for you to become an investor
in Club Nacoxa. How did that come about?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
So I dip my toe into soccer investing with Angel
City and I had such a good time. Angel City
for Los Angeles was a very specific project led by
Natalie Portman Julie Orman, who wanted to prove that female
owners could run a female team in female sports. Like
it was a really good pilot program. Al Taylists and

(03:00):
Sam Porter came to me. They invest in undervalued leagues
or undervalued teams in huge leagues. They have a cricket
team in India, they have a rugby team in New Zealand,
and they came and they said, we want to do
La Liga Mexicana because they said there's so much value
in the Mexican league. The amount of eyeballs that watch

(03:24):
outside of the Premier League, outside of the Champions League,
the amount of people that watched La Liga Mexicana was insane.
They have a very moneyball approach, like if we do this,
if we do that, if we invest this much and
put these people. They're very data driven, statistic driven, and
I'm like the opposite. I'm emotional driven. I don't invest

(03:46):
in things. I invest in people. And I fell in
love with Al, I fell in love with Sam, and
I said, these are guys I want to be in
business with. And anytime I have an opportunity to what
people think of Mexico, the beauty of Mexico, anytime I
can elevate the idea of the talent that comes out

(04:07):
of Mexico, the culture that comes out of Mexico, I
jump at it. It's what drives me and my purpose
as a producer, as a director. It's the stories I
want to tell. And so I thought, yeah, sign me up.
I would love to invest.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Did you go in with the idea that this could
be a television show like Welcome to Wrexham has been
for FX and has incredible impact on that town in Wales.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Now, no, no no. I went in as purely as
an investor. But the minute I set foot in Ajuascalientes,
which is where we are based, AU was Calanthis is
about an hour away from Mexico City, so it's very
central Mexico.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
I thought, this is a TV show. The town is
a character.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
The family that runs the team are amazing human beings.
The players the coaches, the staff, Like I immediately we
saw a TV show. It wasn't until later that we
brought in Robin Ryan. We started developing the TV show
outside of the Wrexam world and by chance, my investment
group with Al and Sam, decided to invest with Wrexham

(05:15):
and so we invested in Wrexham and in turn they
invested in us. And Al was like, You've got to
meet Robin Ryan. They're amazing and I said, oh my gosh,
I love what they did with Wrexham. I thought, if
there's anybody who knows how to do this, it's Robin Ryan.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
I knew we were going.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
To have a show because you can't script what happened.
We've been through coaches, we've been through management changes. We
sold our star player, we got them back. It is insane,
the emotion and the drama, like, you can't script it.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
What did you learn about Mexican culture from immersing yourself
in the world of Mexican football.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
I learned that soccer is a national language. I mean
it is not Spanish. Spanish is not the nations in Mexico.
It is soccer. And going into it, I had a
couple of fears. One was that I'm Mexican American, you know,
I'm American by nationality, and I thought, oh god, I.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Hope they accept me.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
And I was also nervous as a woman and a
man's sport, you know, as one of the few. I
think I'm only the second female soccer team owner in Mexico,
and I thought, oh god, I hope they accept me
for that too. And then you know, the reason I
say soccer is the national language is because nobody cares
about that. Nobody gonna make care what are you doing

(06:34):
for the team? How are we going to win championships?
And so I've been welcomed with open arms.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Your investment in the Coosa has come at a time
when you're also building a very significant media company, Hyphenate
Media with Chris Abrego. How has that been for you
and what does building Hyphenate tell you about where the
real traction is in television, in media, in film.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Christ and I've been friends for twenty three years. We
both had amazing success individually and we thought, why are
we the exception with our community, with the Latino community,
and we really wanted to join forces and change the
way business is done with hyphen It Media. We both
wanted to break up the business model. He's one of

(07:18):
the best producers I know, and I feel like you
can't do the executive side without being a producer. And
I feel that way as an actor, Like I think
the reason I love directing is because I've been on
the other side of the lens. We invested in Globe Nation,
led by the incredible Gloria Kalddom Kellet. She's a force

(07:39):
of nature. She can write four shows and one time
she can break out stories. She creates characters, She's brilliant,
and she taps into the cultural knowledge of what it
means to be a Latino in this industry. We made
a deal with iHeartRadio for podcasting to support and produce

(08:00):
other creators that have the same vision. We're building out
now our next phase of ipin at Media, continuing in
the scripted space, of course, just some exciting things. We
really saw a white space and we wanted to build
this new business and new verticals to support this culture
defining creator led stories.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
You have a Netflix movie project coming up through Hyphenate,
the Fifth Wheel with Kim Kardashian. Where are you in
that state?

Speaker 2 (08:27):
We're waiting for prep to begin the Fifth Wheels written
by Paula pel who is one of the most respected
cool kids of comedy writers out there today. And so
when I read the script and I said, oh my god,
it was such a unique, one of a kind story
about female friendship. And then I heard Kim was going
to play one of the parts, and I thought, oh

(08:48):
my god, that's genius, because once you read the script,
you go, okay, yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's hilarious. Now we'll hear from Joe Otterson Variety's TV
News at He's a longtime friend of Hank and Peggy
Hill of Arland, Texas. Joe Watterson, thanks for joining me.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Hello, glad to be here.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
I know you to be a big King of the
Hill fan for a long time, and so of course
you were the perfect person as this beloved animated Fox
comedy is coming back to life in a new form,
new platform for Hulu. What surprised you as you did
your reporting on this feature?

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Honestly, what surprised me the most was how good the
new episodes really were and how consistent the tone was
with the original show while also updating it and bringing
it into the present day. Because we've talked about this
a lot with reboots revival. One day we're going to
have a summit at Variety to officially declare what defines

(09:47):
a reboot and what defines our revival.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
We'll etch it on a stone tablet and no one
will ever debate.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
But no, what really surprised me was how consistently good
it was after such a long layoff, because that showing
off the air in two thousand and nine, and reboots
and revivals these days are obviously a huge part of
the Hollywood landscape, and it's a very very very fine
line to walk if you're really going to do it well.
We've seen it happen a million times. Everyone gets all

(10:13):
excited they're bringing back all these cast members and some
of the original creative team, and then it flares up
for a couple of episodes. Everyone watches the first couple
and then they realize it's not as good as it
once was and they stop watching. So to be able
to bring something like this into the present day, keep
it consistent with the original show while also updating it
with the I mean, the humor, the storylines, everything that

(10:35):
was really surprising In the best way possible, I would say.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
It really is true that even more than the Simpsons.
King of the Hill really was a slice of life
of America with a ry sense of humor and a
beer on the side. We just kind of dropped back
into the lives twenty years later of Hank and Peggy
Hill and their extended family in Arlen, Texas, and hilarity
and real life ensues. And you're saying that they've adapted

(11:01):
that to capturing all of the crazy of twenty twenty five.
Pretty well.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
I was thinking about that a lot, too, Like, what
was it that made this show so successful? Aside from
the fact that it's wildly funny and had an incredible cast,
I mean, had a lot going for it, But what
in particular, like that indefinable it. In talking with Mike Judge,
he brought that up. This idea of authenticity. You talked
about the Simpsons, there's Family Guy, There's South Park, Futurama,
et cetera. King of the Hill stands out in the

(11:25):
fact that those other shows, and this is not to
be derogatory toward them at all, but they're very cartoony,
right like the classic you know, like you can whack
somebody in the head with a frying pan and then
they pop right back.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
Up, Anna, Barbara.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
One oh one, like King of the Hill was very
different in that it was very true to life, despite
the fact that it was an animated show, and people
still love the show and it came out originally almost
thirty years ago.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
There's much more detail in your story, which has fantastic art,
as you would expect for a feature on an animated series.
I want to button up by asking you reboots and
remakes all all over the place, and they'd had a
rocky time at the box office. What are you seeing
on the TV side?

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, it's not as strong a part of the TV
side as it was a few years ago, but it's
still definitely a major factor. I just always say, you know,
the wave has kind of crashed at this point, but
that doesn't mean there's still not more to come. Because
a lot of this stuff has been in development now
for years. It's very much a question of trying to
walk that fine line and also not overdoing it and

(12:25):
oversaturating it. I think that's a big problem you've had
with things like Marvel or Star Wars in the last
several years. Is it used to be an event? Now
you get one every month practically When you have infinite
access to this sort of thing that it stops being special.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Joe, thank you, as ever remind us when this show premieres.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
King of the Hill is back for season fourteen. All
time episodes drop on Hulu on August fourth, Well said, thanks, Joe,
thank you.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
As we close out today's show, here are a few
things we're watching for up early tomorrow for Disney Earnings
before the Bell, Warner Brothers Discovery goes Thursday morning. Just
as the Paramount skuy Dance Media transaction is expected to
close on Friday, we'll start tracking the latest wide releases.
Freaky or Friday from Disney and Weapons from Warner Brothers

(13:16):
hit the multiplexes this weekend. As football season approach, I
personally am looking forward to checking out the latest season
of HBO's Hard Knocks. It premieres tonight. The show is
in training camp with the Buffalo Bills this season, Go
Bills before we Go. Congrats to Emily Thorpe Jones. She's
joined UTA's London office to head up corporate and private

(13:38):
events for the music division. She comes to the agency
from Various Artist Management, where she headed brand and corporate strategies.
Thanks for listening today's episode was written by me Cynthia Littleton,
with contributions from Eva Longoria and Joe Otterson. It was
edited by Aaron Greenwald. Sticks Nick's hick picks. Please leave

(13:58):
us a review at the podcast platform of your choice,
and please tune in tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Searching for a series, and that's been so much fun.
We did searching for Mexico, we did searching for Spain.
I just wrapped searching for friends. Now we haven't acccess.
I'm eating and drinking my way through the world, so
it's not a bad gig.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.